This invention relates to computer controlled data systems and, more particularly, to a programmed computer system for the production of embossed cards and retrievable data.
The primary application for the methods of this invention is the registration of attendees at large gatherings, such as trade shows or conventions. In many fields, periodic gatherings of large numbers of persons with the same interests or for same purpose are very common. For example, a trade association of companies in some particular field may stage each year a trade show of selected products manufactured or sold by its exhibiting member companies. Such a trade show is an important marketing method for the participating firms. New products may be introduced, old products advertised, and so forth.
Attendance at such gatherings may total many thousands of persons. Generally, the organization sponsoring the event wishes to have detailed information concerning the many attendees. This may include, for example, such usual data as attendee name, company name and address and such statistical information as company size, job title, area of interest, type of company and so forth. This data is of interest to both the sponsoring organization and the participating or exhibiting companies.
In order to collect the desired information, large meetings such as conventions and trade show generally utilize an attendee registration procedure. The registration procedure is the first of the two principal functions of the preferred embodiment of this invention. Current registration practices require an attendee to fill out a written document with the information desired by the sponsoring organization. The documents are then sorted and collated, quite often by hand, to obtain the desired information. Quite often, usually because of the time required to sort the data, the information is not available to the interested parties until after the conclusion of the meeting.
Many trade shows and conventions are used by exhibitors to provide information to attendees about their products or services. While some information may be obtained about a product or service at an exhibitor's booth, it very often is necessary for an attendee to give his name to an exhibitor so that requested information may be supplied to him at a later data. Traditionally, the information necessary to answer such an inquiry has been obtained from an attendee and copied out by hand by an exhibitor. As may be readily appreciated, such handling of an attendee inquiry is very time consuming. The practical result often is that many otherwise interested attendees never request information of an exhibitor because of the necessary wait at a busy exhibit. This is, of course, advantageous for both the exhibitor and the attendee.
An improvement in the traditional inquiry system described above has been used at some shows and conventions in recent years. Embossed plastic cards are produced, similar to the familiar credit card, which bear the attendee's name and address. Each exhibitor is provided with preprinted forms and a card imprinter. When an inquiry is received, the exhibitor imprints a form with the inquiring attendee's card and writes in only the requested information. The inquiry card procedure saves great amounts of the exhibitor's time, reduces the number of personnel necessary at the exhibit and reduces the time that each attendee must wait to record his inquiry. Production of the embossed card used in the inquiry procedure is the second of the two principal functions of the preferred embodiment of this invention.
While the inquiry card procedure described above is a considerable improvement over the traditional hand written method, there are many problems in its use. Each card must be embossed from data entered by hand. Since this process requires personnel to operate each card embosser, it is quite expensive. While the inquiry cards may be embossed for those persons who are expected at a show or convention, often the attendee must visit in a second line, following his registration, for his manually embossed card to be produced. If the line becomes too long, the attendee may be asked to return later to obtain his inquiry card. This is very unsatisfactory, since the attendee cannot make any inquiries during this period or the exhibitors must be prepared to record written inquiries.
In summary, the present registration and inquiry sytem in use at most trade shows and conventions is unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. Satistical data concerning attendees is often unavailable for considerable lenths of time after the conclusion of the show or convention. Since the data handling, both for registration and inquiry, must be performed by hand, it is both slow and expensive for the organizers and exhibitors. Finally, the very considerable periods of waiting required by the attendees is unsatisfactory to them.